KU evening programme | SPSC official misconduct

Karach University announced evening programme new schedule
Karachi, Mar 16: The University of Karachi has announced that the students of
the KU evening programme who have failed to pay their tuition/examination fee as
yet may deposit the same with the directorate of the evening programme without
the late fee according to the following schedule:

Students of the
Business Administration, Public Administration, Pharmacy/Pharm-D, Pharmaceutics
(MPharm), Pharmacology (MPharm), Special Education, Statistics, Physiology and
Psychology Departments: March 24 and 25.

Plan to set up day-care centre in KU
Karachi: The government is bound to give constitutional rights to the
downtrodden segment of society but this concept has unfortunately been
overlooked in the country for many years.

This was stated by Sindh
Minister for Women Development Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto while speaking at the
inaugural session of a seminar titled "Endeavouring for Heights" organised by
the mass communication department of the University of Karachi on Saturday. The
seminar was held in connection with the International Women's day.

The
minister observed that women of Pakistan possessed great potential to play a
productive role in nation-building but they were denied proper
opportunities.

"This is all the more unfortunate for an Islamic society
since Islam ensures equal rights for men and women," she said, adding that the
PPP-led government was taking concrete measures to bring womenfolk on a par with
men.

"It isn't often that you see an ordinary woman getting the acclaim
she deserves," she said, adding "Every woman is a champion in her own way and in
her own field."

Sadly, women of this society had not been given due
respect and this was evident from the fact that whatever Pakistani women had
achieved so far, they had had to fight for the due privileges, she pointed out,
and said "This should not have been the case."

Ms Bhutto noted that
women in our culture were supposed to play a very submissive role as they had
been doing for a long time. She stressed the need for not only providing them
with their due privileges, but also educating them about their rights and
potential.

"Educating people about something they are completely
unfamiliar with is a prolonged, strenuous and exhausting task," she said,
remarking that "it may not and cannot be accomplished in a few
years."

Regretting the male-dominated society's attitude towards women,
she said: "After having suppressed women for so long, one cannot expect
empowerment of the segment in a day." It required a lot of efforts as well, she
said, which was possible to make only all segments of the society work together
and endeavour tirelessly to achieve the goal.

Karachi University
Vice-Chancellor Prof Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, in his presidential remarks,
observed that women in this society could be classified in three groups. The
first group comprised those who got all the support and encouragement required
for empowerment; the second group consisted of those who lacked active support
but possessed and used the potential to attain the objective; and the third
group comprised those who neither had any support nor did they have resources.
"Actually the third group is the suppressed segment of society," he
added.

He urged the enlightened segment of society to strive for an
environment where the women of the second and third groups were encouraged and
empowered.

Shahida Qazi, a former chairperson of the department, was of
the view that both men and women were the victims of discrimination in society.
She said women could do anything that a man could and that too, better than him.
"Every housewife amongst us has enough time to do something extra to
contribute to society," she said, adding that if every educated woman educated
young girls at her home, this would multiply the number of educated women in the
country in a very short span of time.

Day-care centre

The minister
announced that a day-care centre for women teachers would be established at the
University of Karachi. Responding to women teachers' request in this regard, the
minister said that such a centre would be established to facilitate the routine
duties and personal requirements of women teachers. She promised that her
ministry would take measures to furnish the centre. She said that she visited
all the 18 towns of the Karachi district and found only one well-established
day-care centre functioning in the city.

Permanent lecturers shortage
Karachi: Director-General of Colleges Prof Rafique issue of shortage
of permanent lecturers in public sector colleges would be addressed in a few
months.

He was addressing an award and certificates distribution ceremony
at the Abdullah Government College for Women, North Nazimabad, on
Saturday.

He appreciated the performance of the college which, he noted,
was the first college in the province to have initiated postgraduate classes for
women. Ppi/App

Minister asks SU to generate resources
Hyderabad: Sindh Minister for Education Pir
Mazharul Haq has said that the University of Sindh should create resources for
its development instead of depending on†grants.

It should come up with ideas of different schemes to
increase its resources and maintain close contact with trade and industry, he
said. However, he said that the government was determined to provide funds to
public sector universities to promote higher education.

He was speaking at a meeting of the University of
Sindh senate on Saturday.

He called upon the universities of the province to
ensure that they impart quality education and promote valuable traditions.

The minister said that the University of Sindh was
the first university of the province established to provide education to youth
of remote areas. He said that the university had great traditions and was known
for quality education.

He said that teachers were most important section of
the society and the profession of teaching needed dedication and sacrifices.

The minister said the Sindh education department
through an endowment trust would grant scholarships to the university
students.

He said that the universities should follow rules and
regulations passed by competent bodies and added that a civilian government
always respected universities and teachers.

University of Sindh Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq
Siddiqui in his report said that the university had been trying hard to improve
the quality of higher education and produce research to cater the needs of the
society.

He said that the faculty was the soul of the
university and the university was providing facilities to faculty members to go
abroad for doing PhD.

He said that presently 40 scholars were doing PhD in
the universities abroad and 69 more scholarships for studies abroad had been
approved at a cost of Rs491 million.

He said that the university was planning to launch
new disciplines, including industrial electronics, forensic chemistry, applied
chemistry, industrial chemistry and medical physics.

He said that the university had introduced five-year
bachelor of law programme, departments of anthropology and archaeology and short
courses in music.

He thanked the Sindh government for sanctioning Rs150
million for an auditorium and Benazir Bhutto chair at the University.

The vice-chancellor, highlighting the achievements in
higher education and research, said that financial crisis and sudden curtailment
of not only development grants but also in recurring allocation may hamper the
march forward and†adversely affect the university's achievements.

He said that with a 120 per cent increase in
students' enrolment during the last six years and compelling additional
requirement of faculty, laboratory equipment and commensurate increase in
infrastructural facilities, the university required more funds.

He made a request to the minister, who is also
pro-chancellor of the university, to plead the case of the university with the
federal government to at least restore the recurring grant to sustain the
achievements.The university senate approved the annual budget of Rs1,425 million
for the current financial year 2008-2009 with a deficit of R306.908
million. App

SPSC official found guilty of misconduct
Karachi: The Sindh High Court, in its enquiry report into allegations
of malpractice committed in the selection of deputy district attorneys, has
found the then controller of examinations of the Sindh Public Service
Commission, Umer Zaur, guilty of misconduct, while it has absolved SPSC chairman
Hassan Bhutto and member Abdul Ghafoor Junejo.

The report was prepared
by Justice Faisal Arab, who was entrusted with the enquiry into the allegations
against the SPSC chairman vide notification Feb 10, 2007. The report was placed
before the Sindh Assembly on March 12 in response to a question asked by Nadeem
Ahmed Bhutto.

In 2004, the law department of the Sindh government placed
a requisition with the commission for selecting 23 persons for appointment to
the post of deputy district attorney in BPS-17.

The candidates were
required to first appear in written competitive examinations and the candidates
qualifying in the said examinations were then to be called for viva voce.

Justice Arab had issued notices to the SPSC chairman M.H. Bhutto, member
of the selection committee Junejo and ex-controller of examinations Zaur to
state their respective positions in writing with regard to the selection of
deputy district attorneys who were called for viva voce despite failing their
written tests.

According to the procedure notified by the commission on
Dec 7, 2005, in cases where the number of candidates is more than three for each
post, a maximum of three candidates for each post are to be selected from
amongst the candidates who have appeared in the written competitive
examinations.

As such, against 23 posts, 69 candidates were required to
be selected for viva voce from amongst the aspirants who scored the highest
marks in the written test.

In response to an advertisement, which was
placed in newspapers by the commission, 641 applications were received and after
scrutiny 435 were found in order. These candidates were then called in for the
written test on Dec 22, 2005.

Out of the 435 candidates, only 404
appeared for the written test. Retired Rear Admiral S.A. Baqar, who was one of
the members of the commission, was assigned to act as the examiner of the
written test.

He then submitted the list containing the coded numbers of
answer sheets and the marks for all 404 candidates to the controller of
examinations, who determined that a minimum of 47 marks were required to qualify
for the viva voce. Sixty-nine candidates hence qualified for the oral test.

After this, the
selection process was alleged to be tainted. Pursuant to the allegation, the
records was scrutinised, and this scrutiny indicated that Mr Zaur had prepared
his own list, and had awarded extra marks to 25 candidates.

In his first
response, Mr Zaur alleged that the list with the exaggerated marks had been
fabricated to involve him in false charges. However, the handwriting of the
figures on the list tallied with another list admittedly prepared by Mr Zaur,
one which related to assistant protocol officers.

When SPSC chairman
Bhutto was asked whether he verified the selection of candidates mentioned in
the draft press release with the examiner's award list in order to check any
accidental error or intentional manipulation, he answered in the negative and
submitted that as chairman, he was continuously occupied with the work of
interviewing candidates.

He said that it was because of this that in
1991, vide a Jan 19, 1991, notification issued by the then chairman M.A. Kazi,
the controller of examinations was made exclusively responsible for tabulation
and announcement of the results of the written test. Member Abdul Ghafoor Junejo
also said selection of eligible candidates for viva voce was the exclusive
responsibility of the controller.

Report's recommendations

In
his report, Justice Arab recommends that in order to prevent such scams in the
future, the controller of examinations should prepare a list under his or her
signature after receipt of result sheets from the examiner containing coded
numbers and marks secured by all the candidates in the written test. The list
should contain both coded and original roll numbers of each candidate selected
for viva voce and the minimum qualifying marks.

The chairman or any
other members of the commission should cross-check the list prepared by the
controller with the examiner's award list to avoid intentional manipulation or
omissions in the selection of qualified candidates.

Copies of the
examiner's award list and the list of candidates qualified in the written test
shall at all times be made available for inspection by any candidate for the
sake of transparency, Justice Arab's report adds. Dawn

Dr Atta for raise in education budget
Karachi: Former Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Prof Dr
Atta-ur-Rehman on Saturday said that the education was the only road map to
economic progress of the country, while the enhancement in the education budget
was the hard-pressed demand of the time inline with Malaysia who spends 25 per
cent of its GDP in the education sector.

He was speaking at an inaugural
ceremony of the Dr Atta-ur-Rahman Seminar Hall, set up at Dow University of
Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi. Vice Chancellor DUHS Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan
and other faculty members were also present on the occasion.

Dr Atta said
that the progress made in the higher education sector by the HEC had been
applauded internationally, while some international agencies including World
Bank, British Council and USAID, and some magazines and journals had termed such
progress as silent revolution.

"Students belonging to public universities in
the country have free access to 40,000 online books and 25,000 e-journals. The
E-books support programme, initiated by the HEC, allowed researchers, teachers
and students to access most of the important text and reference books
electronically in various disciplines of pure and social sciences. Over 220
leading international publishers published these books, covering various
disciplines, including Business and Management, Information Technology,
Engineering, Health and Biomedical, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences
and others. The important feature of this programme is that these books are
downloadable. When HEC initiated its work, there were 1,13,000 enrolments in the
public sector universities in the country now they are more 300,000. The funds
of HEC mostly spent in the scholarship programmes," he added.

Talking about
the progress in the area of research, he said, "ICCBS, a state-of-the-art
institution of the Karachi University, comprised on different world-class
research institutions, including PCMD and HEJ, where more than 60 international
conferences on different scientific issues had been organised and hundreds of
researches had been published in top international publications during the last
25 years. The performance of any higher learning institution can be gauge easily
through its number of publications, quality faculty and awards won by the
faculty, research and education activities."

Earlier, Vice Chancellor DUHS
Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan briefed the participants of the occasion about the
progress that have been made by the financial help of HEC. The Nation